A Review of ABC's: Bless This Mess
So, I know I'm a little late, LOL, but by the time I started writing this, Bless This Mess had just premiered and I got so caught up in other things (and watching the past two episodes), that I completely forgot to return and publish my review! Thanks for bearing with me and allowing me to start over, three times, and get this out to you!
ABC's new comedy Bless This Mess, which premiered April 16, 2019, stars Lake Bell as Rio, a therapist-turned-farmer and Dax Shepard as Mike, Rio's professor-turned-farmer husband, and is a blast!
Bell, who is also Executive Producer, and Shepard are newlyweds who move from New York to Nebraska, when Mike's great-grandaunt dies and leaves him a farm house. What they think will be a grand ol' time out on the range, turns into a not-so-glamourous fixer-upper of a farm and their lives.
Bless This Mess has a perfect combination of charm, wit, intelligence and funny, which is a recipe for a wonderful show! Bell's and Shepard's chemistry is spot-on, which always helps, and the rest of the cast is perfectly matched.
St. Elsewhere's (1982) Ed Begley Jr. stars as Rudy, Mike's and Rio's short-on-words neighbour who uses their toilet whenever he needs to; Foxy Brown's (1974) Pam Grier stars as Constance, the local Sheriff and Convenience Store owner who also happens to have a crush on Rudy (and vice versa); Anchorman's David Koechner stars as Beau Bowman, Mike's and Rio's neighbour who wants to purchase the farm off their hands; Accidentally on Purpose's (2009) Lennon Parham stars as Kay Bowman, Beau's uptight wife who can't seem to warm up to Rio; and Best Friends Whenever's (2015) JT Neal stars as Jacob, Beau's and Kay's only child who is a bit slow but has determination. The show also features appearances from Tim Bagley, Susie Essman, Jen Tullock, Eddie Pepitone, Connie Shin, Corey Allen Kotler and Travis Grenke.
If this review had been published when I intended, just after the pilot episode, I would have said that Bless This Mess has the makings for a long run simply based on the first episode. But, now that we're three episodes in, there is no doubt that this will be the show's fate.
It's always exciting when a TV show comes along that makes viewers want to stick around and become invested in the lives of each character to see what happens next, and that is exactly the case for Bless This Mess. I want to stick around to see when the storm finally 'acomes, LOL; or to see if Mike ever actually renovates the house or grows accustom to it as is; or to see if Rudy and Constance finally get together. I'm invested, and with the show's comedy counterparts American Housewife, The Kids Are Alright and Black-ish, Bless This Mess fits right in with its own messiness that makes for great entertainment and a lot of heart.
